China removes former armed police commander and ex-PLA deputy chief Wang Ning from top advisory body

China's top political advisory body has stripped General Wang Ning, a former commander of the People's Armed Police and one-time deputy chief of the PLA General Staff, of all his posts and revoked his membership. The decision was taken on 4 November at the closing session of the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported, citing China's state news agency Xinhua.

According to the Xinhua account relayed by the Central News Agency and Lianhe Zaobao, the session removed Wang as a standing committee member and as vice-chairman of the conference's foreign affairs committee, and then cancelled his membership. The same vote cancelled the memberships of three other people from business and government. The announcement gave no reason for Wang's removal.

Lianhe Zaobao noted that the official release still described one departing member, former intellectual property chief Shen Changyu, as a comrade, while it did not use that word for Wang or for the three others whose memberships were revoked. No investigation of Wang has been announced in the reports.

Wang, 71, built his career in the army before moving to the paramilitary force. He came up through the former Nanjing Military Region and the 31st Group Army, a corps then based in Fujian province across the strait from Taiwan, which he went on to command. He later served as chief of staff of the Beijing Military Region and as a deputy chief of the PLA General Staff.

He became commander of the People's Armed Police in December 2014 and was promoted to the force's rank of general in July 2015, according to the Central News Agency. He also sat on the Communist Party's central political and legal affairs commission and was a member of the party's 19th Central Committee. After handing over the command in 2020, he became a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress constitution and law committee in February 2021 and joined the advisory conference's standing committee in March 2023.

Zaobao reported that Wang had been missing from public view for some time and did not appear at China's annual parliamentary sessions in March this year. The South China Morning Post said his removal makes him the third consecutive head of the armed police to fall from grace in about 15 years.

His predecessor, Wang Jianping, was detained in 2016 and became the first serving general to be taken down after the party's 18th congress in 2012. His successor, Wang Chunning, who took over the force in 2020, was expelled from the Communist Party and the military last year on suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law, according to the Central News Agency, which cited Hong Kong's Ming Pao.

Wang's case links the purge to officers who rose through formations opposite Taiwan. Zaobao described him as a second-generation member of a revolutionary-era family whose rise ran through the Fujian-based 31st Group Army, while the Central News Agency placed his removal alongside the downfall of both men who held the armed police command before and after him.